WOW! A real "smoking gun" of an interview!

Louisville mayoral candidate and East End developer Chris Thieneman on March 17, 2010, OPENLY ADMITS that HB 221 is all about Louisville's MSD (Metropolitan Sewer District) taking over sewer operations in a 7 county region (BULLITT, OLDHAM, HARDIN, MEADE, SPENCER, NELSON, JEFFERSON (and he mentions SHELBY even though this bill was amended to exclude Shelby Co. Shelby County got smart and got OUT of this bill!)).

His exact words are:
"It's a bill where MSD is going to try to regionalize and combine ALL THE SEWER DISTRICTS outside of Louisville , Shelby Co., Bullitt Co., ... ALL THE SURROUNDING COUNTIES, and MAKE MSD IN CONTROL OF ALL THAT. And that's something the city (Louisville) desperately needs...."

He further admits that Louisville (and Jeffersontown) want this HB 221 so that they may expand "sewer capacity" for further development of Louisville and Jeffersontown. In fact, he specifically mentions that Louisville's EAST END is the winner if this bill passes because it will provide even MORE opportunties for his developer friends.

But this Louisville mayoral candidate is totally SILENT on OVERSIGHT and ACCOUNTABILITY. This bill has ZERO OVERSIGHT and near ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY.

Telephone utility companies have PSC oversight and accountability.
Electric utility companies have PSC oversight and accountability.
Water utility companies have PSC oversight and accountability.
Metropolitan Sewer Districts (MSD) have ZERO PSC oversight and accountability. This needs to change immediately!

But here's a relevant fact that is not mentioned by any supporter of HB 221:

Louisville's MSD has a $2.7 BILLION debt service problem that it accrued all by itself! It NEEDS MORE MONEY in the worst way possible. It can solve some of its future money woes through HB 221 by shifting FUTURE DEBT onto the backs of the rate-paying citizens of BULLITT, OLDHAM, HARDIN, MEADE, SPENCER, NELSON, and possibly SHELBY counties. (Oh yeah ... the Ky House amended HB 221 to ALLOW the shifting of FUTURE DEBT to ALL members of any wastewater commission created under this bill.)

Everything this bill proposes to "solve" CAN BE DONE NOW under existing KRS.
Everything EXCEPT imposing UNREGULATED FEES on the citizens of the BULLITT, OLDHAM, HARDIN, MEADE, SPENCER, NELSON, and possibly SHELBY counties! HB 221 will ALLOW these fees to be imposed upon the citizens of those counties!
(See also:
MSD Exec Dir admits everything HB 221 would permit, MSD can already do now, BUT now MSD has to get the approvals of all those pesky local governments before MSD can impose UNREGULATED FEES and charges)

Aren't you glad that we posted this info here? For, you see, Louisville and MSD supporters won't tell you these important points. HB 221 is ALL ABOUT what "big brother Louisville" wants and doesn't care about the "little guy" neighbors in BULLITT, HARDIN, OLDHAM, MEADE, SPENCER, NELSON and SHELBY counties.

FYI - A brief overview about Jeffersontown's Bluegrass Industrial Park that was mentioned can be found at: Bluegrass: Kentucky's LARGEST Industrial Park with over 38,000 jobs


This movie is part of the collection: Community Video

Producer: Stop I.T. (Stop Invisible Taxes)
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: HB 221; HB221; Kentucky; Debt; Commission; regional; wastewater; unregulated

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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